Ex-prime minister among Vanhanen’s audience

Among those attentively listening in the chamber on Wednesday (5 July), when Vanhanen addressed the European Parliament, was Anneli Jaatteenmaki, one of Finland's 14 MEPs.

She was prime minister for a mere two months back in 2003, until forced to resign over suggestions that she had been using leaked secret information against her rival for the premiership Paavo Lipponen. It was Vanhanen who took over as prime minister, which is why he was addressing the European Parliament as president of the European Council and not her. So he has something in common with his Polish counter-part Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz: neither prime minister campaigned in his country's most recent general election as a prime ministerial candidate.

There is something splendidly parochial about the state-aid investigation launched last week by the European Commission’s competition department into JC Decaux, a French advertising company. The question …